Figures
Two Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) workers.
In many social insects both workers and queens can lay male eggs. In a comparative study, Hammond and Keller (see article) show that, contrary to expectation, relatedness does not explain the proportion of worker-produced males. This suggests that regulation of worker reproduction occurs because selfish reproduction by workers reduces colony productivity.
Image Credit: Two Argentine ant workers (Linepithema humile) by Christian Konig, Konig-photo.com
Citation: (2004) PLoS Biology Issue Image | Vol. 2(9) September 2004. PLoS Biol 2(9): ev02.i09. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pbio.v02.i09
Published: September 28, 2004
Copyright: © 2004 Christian Konig. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
In many social insects both workers and queens can lay male eggs. In a comparative study, Hammond and Keller (see article) show that, contrary to expectation, relatedness does not explain the proportion of worker-produced males. This suggests that regulation of worker reproduction occurs because selfish reproduction by workers reduces colony productivity.
Image Credit: Two Argentine ant workers (Linepithema humile) by Christian Konig, Konig-photo.com